Area students launch weather balloon

Nearly 300 area middle school students gathered at the Caterpillar Learning Center in Edwards to assemble and launch a weather balloon. The project was led by Riverview Grade School science teacher Emily Dawson. Dawson says the weather balloon inflates to more than five feet across with sensors to measure pressure, humidity and temperature before it lands:

“And then when we retrieve the package, we’re going to be able to put up the date we collected, and then teachers can use that in the fall. And then we will have the videos and the pictures available,” Dawson says.

Dawson says the project was funded by a $1,000 grant from PNC bank. Students helped assemble parts of the weather balloon before launch. Dawson says that makes science more interesting to learn by giving students hands on experience. WTVP will also create a classroom program using footage from the weather balloon launch and recovery process.